The Hellenic Genocide
Quotes from historical documents and related Photos.

The Hellenic Genocide was the systematic torture, massacre and ethnic cleansing of several millions Hellenes (Greeks) perpetrated by the Turks in Asia Minor, Constantinople (called Istanbul by the Turks), Eastern Thrace, Imvros, Tenedos, Macedonia, Cappadocia and Pontos between the beginning of the 1890's and the end of the 1950's.

Millions of children, men and women were tortured and massacred or expelled from their homes only for being Hellenes. In the same places and often at the same time, were also tortured and massacred millions of Armenians and Assyrians of all ages.

The only "sin" of those millions of persons was to live where their ancestors had lived for thousands of years before the Turkish invasions. The Turkish rulers carried out with unimaginable cruelty their plan to create a "Turkey for the Turks."

The policy of extermination of the Hellenes had already been applied to the population of the island of Chios, in 1822, exactly a century before the Turkish army destroyed the city of Smyrna.

The Genocide of the Hellenes of Chios was an anticipation of the Hellenic Genocide, which engulfed all Hellenes the Turks could reach and should have been enough to remind the world that impunity will always cause similar and often worse crimes.

The most known Genocides, the Holocaust, perpetrated by the Germans (with support of Turkey) in the World War II, would possibly not happen if the Genocides perpetrated by the Turks (with support of Germany) had already been acknowledged. One can't understand completely the Holocaust without understanding first the Genocides that preceded it and made it possible.

Warning: Contents not suitable for children.

This work contains quotes from historical documents written during the time of the Genocide. Although focused on the Hellenes, they also mention the Armenians and Assyrians.

The list of quotes is not exhaustive. It covers only documents that are online in their entirety. Most of them are found at the World War I Document Archive of the Brigham Young University, USA. This way, the reader can easily extend their research.

The Hellenic Genocide began much before the World War I and "ended" much after the end of the World War II but works about the World War I include essential accounts from eyewitnesses of the Genocide and are useful to understand why and how that and other genocides were supported and later on covered up.

The genocides perpetrated by Turkey encouraged and facilitated the ones perpetrated by Germany in the World War II. Unlike the crimes of Germany, the crimes of Turkey are still covered up to maximize the profits of certain industries, mainly the military.

Impunity allowed Turkey to invade Cyprus in 1974 and again torture and kill thousands of Hellenes. Impunity allows Turkey to keep 40.000 troops and 120.000 settlers in 37% of Cyprus even though the United Nations require their withdrawal.

Only justice can make peace and stability possible but justice only prevails when the truth is known. It's up to each of us to make justice prevail by making the Hellenic Genocide known.

Click on the title of the book to go to the first page of its online version. Click on the chapter to go to the page or even the section containing the quote.

You can see all quotes and most photos sequentially, clicking on the link Next Page found in the end of every page. If you want to see the quotes from a certain document or photos about a certain subject, click on Site Map, also found in the end of every page.

The site contains 235 quotes, 346 photos, 5 films and 17 maps. More documents will be added as they become available.

The photos are from several sources, both online and printed. Part of them are from the same books listed below. To see their full versions, click on them.

Comments or suggestions may be addressed to Roberto Lopes <>.

This Web site will not be updated anymore. For an up-to-date version of The Hellenic Genocide - Quotes from historical documents and related Photos, please see www.HellenicGenocide.org.

"The last link in the German chain, the first one they attempted to create, is Turkey. The natural ineptitude of the Turkish Government has become a byword of statesmen; the Turks are alien in race and religion to the majority of the subject peoples; their hatred for the Christians is still intense; and the difficulty, therefore, of conducting operations through their hands is great. That, however, might be overcome had the Turk continued supine. The real difficulty which at present stands in the way of the establishment of German control in Turkey is the rise among the Turks of a national party whose chief aim is the exclusion of the foreigner and the government of Turkey solely in the interest of the Turk."

"In the autumn of 1915 accounts of massacres and deportations of the Christian population of Asiatic Turkey began to reach Western Europe and the United States. Few and imperfect at first---for every effort was made by the Turkish Government to prevent them from passing out of the country---these accounts increased in number and fullness of detail, till in the beginning of 1916 it became possible to obtain a fairly accurate knowledge of what had happened."

"Can human beings (it may be asked) have perpetrated such crimes on innocent women and children? But a recollection of previous massacres will show that such crimes are part of the long settled and often repeated policy of Turkish rulers. In Chios, nearly a century ago, the Turks slaughtered almost the whole Greek population of the island."

The Hellenic Genocide
Quotes from historical documents and related Photos.